Category: Business

How to Prevent Marketing Missteps

Posted on by T Gregory

Understanding how to prevent marketing missteps is essential for any business. Keeping these mistakes to a minimum allows you to maximize the reach of your company and give you an advantage over your competitors. On the other hand, always making simple marketing mistakes makes it much more difficult for your business to maintain success in the long-term. You also want to make sure you are measuring the success of your marketing efforts. Taking the time to focus on marketing is crucial for the growth of your business. Here are a few simple marketing tips to keep in mind for your business.

Do Your Research

One of the first steps in creating an effective marketing strategy is to always do your research beforehand. You should use a number of tools for customer segmentation. Taking the additional time to perform research allows you to target the needs of your audience and create a much more impactful marketing campaign. Understanding what your customers want allows you to market more effectively and help your business grow.

Measure Your Progress

The next stage in a marketing campaign is to always measure your progress. Keeping a close eye on your progress allows you to see what works and if you need to make any changes. Marketing goals should be measurable. You can use a variety of software programs to help you determine the success of your marketing outreach. Continually measuring your results allows you to find ways to improve and never stay satisfied with the status quo.

Always Invest Enough Money

Many small businesses make the simple mistake of not investing enough in marketing. However, a lack of funds for marketing makes it much more difficult to obtain new customers. Over time, this can significantly limit the growth of your business and cause you to fall behind your competitors. Always setting aside enough money for marketing is essential in reaching new levels of success for your company by maintaining a steady growth rate.

Learning how to prevent common marketing mistakes is critical for any business owner. Always doing your research, measuring your progress, and investing enough money are all critical aspects of a successful marketing strategy. Failure to focus on marketing makes it much more challenging for your business to grow and attract new clients. Today’s workplace is very competitive but focusing on these marketing tips can help you reach a wide range of customers and ensure your business maintains long-term success.

Of course one of the worst missteps is not having a well made and maintained website. Luckily, we can help! Take a look at our packages and get started on having the best website today!

Top Workplace Standards That Will Enhance Your Business

Posted on by T Gregory

In order to create a safe workplace, certain standards must be implemented and followed. These guidelines, often regulated by government agencies, are in place to provide organized safety for all employees. Other standards that exist may not have anything directly to do with safety, but they exist to protect the employee.

Institute Safety Guidelines

For a place to be deemed as safe, there must be guidelines set up and implemented. These are often called cardinal rules. They ask that every employee adhere to them in order to maintain a safe and efficient working environment. They should often include precautions that have been tested and are established as the safest means possible.

Establishing safety standards keeps people safe, increases efficiency, reduces potential risks, and offers several other important benefits to your company. Leveraging the right resources can help a safety manager easily access the materials needed to create a safe working space.

Create Communication Policies

The news of safety must be spread to all employees. How does one do it, though? The messages must be vibrant, consistent, and informative. The timing of a safety message should be weekly, and they should be discussed in all employee meetings.

Safety communication does not have to be a dry, lifeless piece of information. Make it fun and attention grabbing. Insert quotes from knowledgeable sources regarding employee morale. A communication can use an employee as an example of someone doing something safely. The main message of a safety communication should be relevant and timely.

The Importance of Safety Committees

Safety comes in numbers. A safety committee is, usually, a safety manager and employees who are dedicated and concerned about the safe practices in and around their work environment.

A safety committee is an excellent way to formulate ideas and action. The group can brainstorm ways to communicate safety guidelines and policies to the rest of the employee population. The direction of the safety group should be the benefit of all the employees, keeping in mind that the employees should not be dictated. The policies from a safety committee should be a cooperative effort between managers and employees. The safety committee is a great way to incorporate those efforts.

Safety guidelines are in place to make the work environment a safe and effective place to work. Once the guidelines are implemented, more communication policies can be created through the works of a safety committee.

Read more: How a Wellness Program Benefits Your Business

How to Know When to Outsource and When to Keep It in House

Posted on by T Gregory

One of the best advantages of the internet for businesses today is the ability to outsource professionals and talent on a whim at any time. When you have a business venture or idea of your own, knowing when to outsource and when to keep your IT services in-house is essential, especially if you intend to grow and scale your company and brand in the future. Once you are familiar with the advantages and drawbacks of both outsourced as well as hiring in-house, choosing the right solution for your own business will become much simpler and less confusing and stressful.

Stronger Marketing Strategies

One way to take advantage of outsourcing talent and professionals is to do so when you are in the beginning stages of building a new brand or business. Marketing is one of the most important and useful elements of running a business or promoting a brand’s image and message to prospective customers. When you are first spreading the word and message of your brand, hiring outsourced marketing experts and professionals can help you to save time while optimizing your current advertising budget. Outsourcing professionals of any kind also provides you with instant access to a much larger talent pool of people in various industries. If you feel limited with your current in-house hiring choices, outsourcing the right candidate may be best.

What to Do About Technology Issues?

Today, most successful businesses and mega-corporation conglomerates understand the value of the internet, having an official online presence, and an active social media following. IT tech support goes beyond simply restoring servers or protecting websites from being hacked by potential thieves, trolls, or data harvesters. Unfortunately, many tech companies only focus on IT issues, such as when you’ve been hacked or your server is down, and don’t go beyond that. If your website begins to run slow or during a traffic surge, having an in-house IT specialist is highly advisable. While outsourcing IT professionals at the beginning of your business venture is likely more affordable and much simpler, consider expanding to an in-house IT team of professionals once your brand has been established and has shown that it has profitability for years to come.

As your business continues to grow, scale, and expand, it will also require more resources in order to properly function adequately while remaining profitable. In order to scale your website at an appropriate pace, consider hiring an in-house IT team. In-house IT teams can help with structuring and setting up your very own hosting servers, providing you with more accessibility and control over your website’s speed and who can access your data and company files at any time. While outsourcing an IT team or individual professional or contractor is extremely appealing and attractive to new websites and ventures, an in-house solution or team may ultimately provide more advantages as a company continues to grow within their industry.

Budgeting

Before settling on the decision to outsource or hire in-house, be sure to spend time reviewing your company’s finances as well as the budgeting you have available. Budgeting and reviewing your finances regularly is a way to prevent overspending or going into debt, especially if you are working with capital for a new company and brand. While outsourcing an IT professional or specialist of any kind may be more affordable for short-term results, hiring a full-time IT employee can also help to cut back on unexpected expenses and fees in the future, especially as your company demands more attention from specialists and IT professionals.

Social Media Presence

A successful brand or business does not avoid the power of social media, even if they do not make most of their sales online. Establishing an online presence is more than launching a simple website and sharing your company’s details with Google MyBusiness and other online local directories. In order to truly make a mark in your industry while garnering new followers and prospective customers, it is important to craft a well-executed social media marketing strategy.

While it may seem simple to create an online social media marketing strategy, it does require skills and a complete understanding of current trend monitoring, keywords, SEO, and targeted advertising campaigns. Outsourcing a professional to help create a base social media presence is one way to get your business and brand off the ground with little to no effort and a small budget. However, as you begin garnering new followers and communicating regularly to your customers via social media and online ads, hiring an in-house social media professional can significantly improve the responses and overall performance your campaigns receive.

Web Development

You only have one opportunity to make a great and lasting impression on your visitors and prospective customers or clients online. Without a well-developed website, your website’s bounce rate will likely skyrocket, preventing you from generating sales and remaining profitable. A website’s bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who exits a website after viewing its official homepage or just one landing page they have visited via an ad, search engine, or online promotion.

Even if you do not intend on creating a massive online presence with your business, it is imperative to hire a professional web developer to ensure your online presence is modern, relevant, and accessible to your target audience. Hiring a professional web developer is a must, whether you choose to do so by outsourcing talent or hiring a professional in-house developer that can help to make updates and changes for your business online instantly and with little notice.

Ultimately, you want the best for your business. Take the time to consider your current business model, strategy, and place within the market or industry you are working in before hiring any new professionals to join your team. Whether you are working with a brand new startup or an existing business with thousands of customers, it is always important to know when the best time to outsource or hire in-house is to ensure the ongoing future success of your business and brand.

How a Wellness Program Benefits Your Business

Posted on by T Gregory

As a business owner, it’s your responsibility to make sure everything is going smoothly. This includes checking on the well-being of your employees. Your employees play a very important role in your business. They’re the ones on the front lines and behind the scenes. However, your employees are not machines that can go on indefinitely. If you suspect that your employees aren’t doing as well as they should, a wellness program can do them a world of good. Here are a few ways that a wellness program benefits your business.

Improving Employee Health

One obvious benefit of incorporating a wellness program into your business is improving the health of your employees. No matter what their jobs may be, your employees work hard to keep your business going. In between commuting, tight deadlines, and possibly challenging co-workers, their productivity can suffer. Implementing a corporate wellness program not only shows your staff how much you care, but it also gives you an opportunity to engage on a different level. There are a lot of wellness programs that aim to improve the health of your employees, including exercise initiatives, stress reduction, physical therapy, flu shots, and health screenings.

Improving Productivity

A wellness program does more than simply boost employees’ health. Wellness programs are designed to address challenges commonly faced by employees that can prevent them from being as productive at work. The opportunities provided by a wellness program can help to increase your employees’ productivity and reduce stress levels. They’ll often also be happier to come to work. Unmotivated employees can do more than simply put people in a bad mood. Without the right motivation and the right wellness program in place, poor attitudes can cause your business to lose money. Studies show that incorporating a wellness program helps boost productivity significantly and creates a stronger feeling of unity in the workplace.

Improving Recruitment Rate

Having a wellness program can also lead to higher levels of retention. You may be able to bring in more highly qualified candidates during the hiring process. As a result, this can give your competitors a run for their money as you take on more employees with talent. In fact, potential recruits are more likely to work for a business with wellness programs that help to reduce stress.

Wellness programs are a great way to keep your employees active, vital, and happy. If you’re not sure what kind to choose, simply ask your employees. Try to incorporate a variety of options that suit everyone’s needs.

To learn more ways to help your employees, read on here!

Simple Things Business Owners Can Do to Help Their Digital Marketing Team

Posted on by T Gregory

In today’s internet-connected climate, digital marketing is an absolutely essential part of running a business. However, communication is also an essential part of business, and communicating with your digital marketing team is necessary if you want to create a successful online presence. Here are some ways to connect with your digital marketing team to work toward further success.

Prepare Information

When you hire or put together a marketing team, you trust that these people have the skills needed to get the job done. But it’s important to remember that, while the team is made up of experts in marketing, they may not be experts in your industry. In order to help your digital marketing team develop quality content, give them information about your industry as a whole (and not just about your company). Be sure that the team knows you are willing to answer questions they have as they generate content.

Encourage Communication Between Sales and Marketing Teams

In just about every case, communication will help your business. And one of the most important points of communication is the one between your sales and marketing teams. By encouraging regular communication between the two, you can support your business’s success. For instance, after your marketing team launches a campaign, your sales team can get in touch with recent sales data. From here, the marketing team can adjust their strategy if needed.

Offer Motivation Through Appreciation

In many cases, people who feel appreciated work harder. And for a hardworking marketing team, it can mean a lot to know their efforts are seen and appreciated. Appreciating your marketing team doesn’t have to involve a large amount of time or money, it can be as simple as saying thank you, offering a gift card incentive, or taking the team out for drinks once a goal has been reached. One thing to be aware of is that you should start off small. If you suddenly start offering major rewards, it may make your team suspicious. Start by thanking individuals or groups and give small incentives, and then build from there.

Be Set Up on Google

Google is one of the most major sites on the internet. And for any serious marketing effort, getting a business listing set up on Google is one of the first steps. A Google business listing is not only free, but it also offers you opportunities to connect with customers through both search and map functions. This is a step you can initiate even before hiring a marketing team you can set up a Google My Business account and add location, hours, and business name. This account will then provide you and your marketing team with valuable information. You will be able to monitor Google reviews and also see search data on how most customers are searching for and finding your business online. Google review links are easy to make and should be listed in numerous places.

Help Create Structure

If your digital marketing team is through an independent agency, the team likely already has some structure built-in. But if you’re like many small business owners who opt to build an in-house team, structure is essential. If you are structuring your own team, make sure you include people who specialize in content creation/SEO, social media marketing, email marketing, search advertisements, and mobile marketing. By creating clearly defined roles, you’ll be able to save the team you assemble a lot of time. You’ll also ensure that different aspects of digital marketing are covered equally.

Offer Information About Your Brand Voice

It’s important to remember, especially if you have hired a team from an external agency, that the team is coming in with little information about your business itself. If you have an existing brand voice that you want to maintain, or even if you have more general ideas about the kind of brand voice you want to cultivate, be prepared to collaborate with your team early on. By offering guidance when it comes to brand voice, you’ll save the team some time while also taking the guesswork out of the equation.

Few things are more frustrating for a digital marketing team than being given very general instructions, only to have the business come back and harshly criticize their efforts. Early talks and collaboration will ensure you and the team are on the same page. In conclusion, your digital marketing team is likely to be one of your business’s greatest assets, especially if you’re very early on in your marketing campaign. However, like most aspects of business, marketing doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

By collaborating with and offering assistance to your team when you can, you will save everyone time and effort. You’ll also make it more likely that your digital marketing content matches your brand voice and ethos. By working with your marketing team, you’ll be well on your way to drawing more customers.

Ready to improve your online presence? Click here to see our Web Development packages!